Members of SK Telecom T1 fell victim to at least one known cheater in the first ever Apex Legends esports tournament.

FACEIT Pro Series Apex Legends

The first Apex Legends esports tournament got underway yesterday. It would be the first officially licensed esports tournament for the battle royale game. Sixteen teams would compete for $50,000 over eight events.

The Apex Legends Pro Series opened up with James Bardolph, one of the casters for the event, interviewing members of Cloud9. Teams were in place ready to start the tournament with Cloud9 starting things off. Everything was looking great, with viewership continuingly increasing. The day saw some incredible action, and fans were able to see an amazing 1v1 between Counter Logic Gaming’s Nokokopuffs and TSM’s Albralelie. However, the day was overshadowed by one of T1’s matches.

Cheater Disrupts Apex Legends First Esports Tournament

One of the stronger teams of the day was SK Telecom T1. The squad, which consisted of T1 BcJ, T1 ZerG, and T1 Kurt, finished in 4th place at the end of the day taking home $500. But the team could have finished in the top 3 if it weren’t for a cheater in one of their matches using aimbot.

During one of T1’s matches, the team found themselves battling the last squad near Bridges. As the circle was closing in towards Bridges, the casters noticed something off with the hit-damage on the players of T1. They suspected a cheater was on the other team, and their suspicions were confirmed after this play below.

What we see in the clip above is the screen of T1 Kurt. He was equipped with gold armor, which is the rarest level of armor one can get in the game. Essentially, if you have gold armor, your nearly invincible, unless of course, you encounter a cheater. In the clip, T1 Kurt is seen taking cover behind the Respawn generator. As he quickly fires some shots at the enemy, he instantly loses all of his golden armor, which experienced players will know that is impossible given the situation.

For gold armor to go down that fast, at that distance, one would need to have no recoil on their weapon, and accurately hit T1 Kurt with headshots from that distance (which no weapon has zero recoil). The only other time that gold armor might go down that fast is due to a headshot from a Kraber (sniper rifle), which happens to only fire one bullet at a time. Given that the enemy was using an automated machine gun, he would need to have aimbot enabled. The casters confirmed that there was a cheater in the game.

“He’s Definitely Cheating”

Immediately after T1 Kurt’s gold armor was knocked off, he ran towards the right to fall off the cliff in order rejuvenate himself with a shield generator. At that point, T1 Kurt’s teammates were knocked down instantly by the enemies and were eliminated. One of the casters said “it’s so demoralizing” since it’s a checkmate scenario for T1. There was nothing T1 Kurt could have done because one of the players on the other team was presumably using aimbot.

T1 Kurt ambitiously went back to take on the 3-man squad, however, it was unsuccessful as the cheater took him out instantly despite him have a 3-bar gold armor. If T1 would have won this match, they might have finished in the top 3 with the points they would have earned.

GG’s to all & @FACEITApex , Our 1 loss cost us, we definitely could have taken first if we didn’t drop that game, only 28 points behind it. Overall played great in every game besides that, Dropping several over 30. See you all at the next one. We’re coming for that first. @T1

Not only are cheaters ruining public matches, now they’re ruining esports tournaments. The way the FACEIT Pro Series is formatted, there doesn’t seem to be a way to avoid this scenario in the future given that players are playing in public matches. It’s unfortunate for the players who were preparing months for this tournament, only to deal with cheaters in-game.